Viktor could not believe it. It had been a while since he felt his heart beat this fast. His arms and legs also trembled, but it was not due to fear.

The thrill of killing such a powerful monster and surviving such a crazy fight was certainly something he never expected to be so addicting.

"Aaaaahhhhh!"

He screamed out loud of his victory, embracing his newfound strength. He was about to savor the feeling when suddenly, a notification came to his mind.

[3 minutes has passed.]

[The duration of the Divine Art All Might has run out.]

A second later, Viktor suddenly felt as if his muscles were being pulled apart. It had not even been half a minute, yet the excruciating pain already made him feel like repeatedly stabbing something.

"Blyat!!!" he swore while gritting his teeth.

[You are experiencing the drawback of the skill.]

'F*cking great!!' he sarcastically thought, glaring hatefully at the notification.

Before he could even get used to the initial pain, the pain doubled without notice, causing Viktor to fall kneeling to the ground. At that moment, another notification came.

[All stats will drop significantly for 3 hours.]

[Strength - 15 (5)]

[Agility - 30 (10)]

[Endurance - 28 (9)]

[Battle Power - 23 (7)]

[Spirit Force - 25]

Viktor was left with only one-third of his whole strength. The skill drawback left him with stats so low that he felt he might not be able to win against a kid!

"What kind of stupid skill is this!!"

Viktor took a deep breath to resist the pain which slowly disappeared. Now that the pain was almost completely gone, his head felt much clearer.

"Djinn, what is that upgrade skill anyway? Fate is pleased? Does that mean the way I completed the mission will affect the rewards I receive?"

"Can't you be more helpful, Djinn?"

As Viktor was thinking back to the battle to figure out fate's 'preference', he suddenly remembered about Barry. Without thinking about the battle any longer, he rushed to check on the kid who seemed unconscious and was covered in blood.

Barry looked up when he heard footsteps coming his way. Upon seeing that it was his master, the kid's eyes slightly lit up.

"Master... you are safe… that's good..." 𝙗𝙚𝙙𝒏𝙤𝒗𝒆𝒍．𝒄𝙤𝙢

The stupid kid was still thinking about his safety even with all those wounds on his body.

"You... hang in there, kid!"

Viktor quickly headed toward the living room to find the doctor, only to find that no one was around. When he ran to check the vault, he found that everyone had locked themselves in the vault. All 20 people.

It even took him a few minutes to convince his friend to open the door for him before he could call the doctor.

"I'm sorry, Viktor, there was nothing else we could do..." his good friend, Nicko, said with a little hesitance.

Viktor decided to turn a deaf ear to him. This 'good friend' of his who was supposed to help instead ran and hid, leaving him to fight the abomination alone.

Viktor could not help but let out a dry laugh from the irony. He did the same thing before and even planned to do the same not long ago, but now that they were the ones who did it to him, it made him more determined to leave them to their fates next time.

Viktor heard the sound of footsteps from the side, and when he turned to check, he found Eva slowly walking toward him.

"Are we safe now, dear?" she asked when Viktor turned to look at her. The girl had a hint of worry on her face, but she was still calm overall.

Viktor shook his head in response before answering with a smile, "Don't worry, dear, I have dealt with the monster boss. You are safe now."

"I knew you would keep me safe, Vik." Despite him smelling awful from the monster's 'blood', the princess gave him a passionate kiss, which lit up the awful mood he previously had.

In truth, although the black monster had died, there were still the hordes outside. Not to mention, now that the door was broken, their safety was not guaranteed.

Viktor pointed at a few people who could handle weapons to follow him to get some weapons.

"We have to go defend the entrance now!"

Fortunately, they arrived right when Torri and Boris ran low on ammo. Without wasting any time, they switched positions and shot the zombies that had been piling up just outside of the entrance.

Tratatatata tratatatata—

It seemed that the longer they waited, the more these red zombies showed up at the bunker entrance. Fortunately, the room was not too big and the narrow hallway made it easier for them to kill the incoming zombies quickly.

Viktor checked on Barry, who appeared to feel much better after his wounds were bandaged and given some drugs. Viktor did not approach the kid, but he secretly felt relieved.

He walked toward the entrance once again, thinking about what he should do next. There were probably still hundreds of zombies outside the bunker and hopefully no more of those stage three ones.

Viktor needed to defend the bunker for at least three hours until his stat penalty ended, hence he quickly told everyone to barricade the gate.

"Start shooting!!"

Normally, he would have had no problem clearing the horde, but with his health at the moment, he could only depend on others to fight for him.

Tratatatatatata—

However, a few minutes later, everyone suddenly heard multiple gunfires from outside the bunker.

"What is going on?"

"Are we being rescued?"